Monday, July 13, 2009

On our way to Taliesen, Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home....okay my memory is now very foggy of our trip so details are going to far from good!We got to Taliesen in the morning and took the tour of the house, it is small in scale but massive in terms of the land coverage. I am always amazed to be in a FLW home, such care to be taken to every detail, such passion to create a home that doesn't deny you of nature. We spent far too much time in the gift shop but it was worth it and gotta say this day was our hottest day on the trip and while Amrit chose to stand in the blazing sun and sketch, the 3 of us went to the car to have our lunch. Amrit got a few shades darker in the 20 min he stood there with pen in hand.Then we were on our way to Palm Springs, just a stopping point to break our 7 hour drive to LA. We drove through the dessert, but it didn't look like the dessert I think we pictured in our heads. We wanted to get this map of mid-century modern homes in PS but we got to the store as it closed and so we just stood outside the door till the 2 people inside took notice of us. 2 awesome guy dudes told us all about not leaving for LA for a good 3 hours so we tried to do the house tour with complete failure cause they were all gated in and couldn't see a darn thing so we gave up on that quick and just went to grab dinner. On our way out of PS, out of no where the car starts being very hard to handle due to the wind outside, I mean it was some crazy pressured wind and then we saw it....a forest of wind turbines. 100's of them, it was incredible! We pulled over and wanted to get out to feel the wind and ah....we did. Sand and rocks slamming into our skin, I think I flashed a few folks when my dress flew up....it was great!We got into LA late and went to go see the Walt Disney Concert Hall, with great hesitation from everyone, I managed to make them go all over the grounds. It's a maze there, up and down stairs and ramps and you have no idea where it's taking you or if your supposed to be there. I gotta admit it was kinda scary. Went to the Mann theater and unfortunately the Hollywood sign wasn't lit up and that whole area is kinda weird, they don't show on TV the "ugly" part of that area only the glitz. LA is really big and hard to get to places, you gotta drive everywhere and it sucks.....not a fan.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Almost a year ago I left my family and friends and moved 2 hours away to start a new life with newly wed husband.I soon realized that with out all the familiarities of my previous life I was coming undone. No job, no friends, no family, no life except being with the person I loved the most.I was separated from everything that used to define me. I was uneasy in my skin. What I was wearing, how my hair was, how I looked, how my time was spent and what I was saying were all starting to disgust me.I went through periods where for days I would sit at home waiting for my husband, not cooking, cleaning, exploring or doing anything remotely close to useful with my time. It made me feel worthless - I couldn't get myself to do anything except complain to my loving and understanding husband. Then one day I stopped looking for jobs and looked for volunteer opportunities just so I could get out of the house. If I committed myself to someone else then there would be no way I'd let them down the way I was letting myself down. So I just got out there did something and it was really fun to meet people, make connections and tell others about myself. While doing that I put myself back together but I wasn't who I was before I came to this new place. I was hiding within myself before I moved, as a diluted version of me. My familiar comfortable environment had made me content. My previous life was not me, it fit me then because it was easy to follow rather than to lead, easy to be similar rather than different. But now I am at a perfect fit with my life, I felt like a fully concentrated version of me, what I wear, how I look, how I spend my time and what I say are all lead by my passions not my fears. My physical appearance has changed, maybe not enough to really see a difference but inside I feel embraced by my transformation.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Sorry been a while to get bag to blogging about the road trip, it's not so exciting as the days go on and I am forgetting all the little details that made the trip so fun. Okay so we are on day 4.We got to Flagstaff the night before and went downtown, and it was really quaint and really lit up with great signs for all the restaurants, bars and stores. Of course we were too tired to grab the camera when we left the hotel so no pictures on how great it was! We had dinner at a cute pizza place and out booth was tiny and had carvings all over it from people who had been there before.The next day we had breakfast at Macy's coffee shop which I recommend everyone to go to then started our drive up a mountain to get to a ski resort, but of course as we are making our climb up the gas light goes on and we go right back down the mountain for gas and then back up the mountain where it was FREEZING, around 30 degrees (we all brought nothing for this weather so we basically just put more clothes on). We took the ski lift to the top which was about 15 degrees colder, it was an amazing view and you could see if you looked really hard, the north rim of the grand canyon. Rekha and John we not happy on the ski lift, they both were scarred! We then went back down to the town and had lunch, Navajo tacos = yummy and walked around, it really reminded me of Ashville, NC. I got an awesome red clutch at a vintage store and a lovely little dress at a store that had lots of lovely little dresses!Now we head to Walnut canyon, about 30-45 min away and what do you know we get there like 45 min before the park closes and so we rush through the whole thing. The canyon has single-story cliff dwellings built on the canyon wall and you get to the dwellings by hiking the Island Trail, which is a 1-mile round trip along the cliff where you can basically fall down the cliff if you don't watch where you are walking. I got yelled at almost the whole time for tripping and not paying attention, Amrit and Rekha were about to kick my ass. The wind was so strong there that at one point we are lunged to the cliff wall to hang on for fear that the wind would push us over the edge! The dwellings were pretty awesome, you could walk in them and the view to the other side of the canyon was filled with more dwellings. The hike down of course wasn't as bad as the hike up, not to mention the fact that we were hustling so that we'd make it up before the park closed.We left then for Sedona, the drive was quite boring till you hit the point where the red rocks start to appear and then it just feels like you are on another planet. We checked into the hotel and went ot the downtown for some food, on the way we met with the sunset, it was incredible with all the colors and light disappearing. We didn't do much since most things were closed and we ended up at a diner called "Red Planet", it said welcome earthlings....I don't think I need to say any more.